Justice Reform Initiative says prison spending is costly and ineffective
Australia’s adult prison system costs taxpayers more than $7.3 billion a year, as a new group of economists backs justice reform and argues the spending is not improving community safety.
On 16 September 2026, the Justice Reform Initiative announced Economists for Justice Reform, a coalition that wants the economic case against prisons as the default response to crime and disadvantage to carry more weight.
Its members include Professor Bruce Chapman AO, Saul Eslake, Nicki Hutley, Dr Mike Keating AC, John Piggot AO, John Quiggin, Glenn Withers AO, Justin Wolfers, Nicholas Biddle and Robert Breunig.
Youth detention costs have surged
The Justice Reform Initiative says keeping one adult in prison for a year costs about $119,147. Youth detention spending rose by almost $400 million in five years from $720 million in 2019-20, and it has more than doubled over the past decade.
Youth detention now costs an average of $1.3 million per child each year, or more than $3,600 a day, according to the organisation.
Despite that spending, recidivism remains high. The group says 84% of children released from detention return to sentenced supervision within 12 months, while 45% of adults released from prison return to prison within two years.
International experts recently gave evidence to federal and state parliamentary inquiries on youth justice systems that they say deliver better results for children and community safety at lower cost.
Justice Reform Initiative executive director Dr Mindy Sotiri said, “For decades, governments have not been sufficiently accountable for the economic and social cost of our failed prison and youth detention centres. It is time we put the failure of this vast public expenditure under the spotlight.”
She argued the economic case should sit alongside decades of evidence that prisons do not reduce crime. Sotiri also said incarceration increases the likelihood of reoffending, while politicised policy has pushed governments to spend more on imprisonment instead of measures backed by evidence.
